SOC 104 Final exam review.docx

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School

Ryerson University

Department

Sociology

Course

SOC 104

Professor

Sal Guzzo

Semester

Winter

Description

SOC 104: Final exam review
April 25, 2013
Format: 75 multiple-choice questions covering chapters 7, 10, 11, 16
Socialization, Behaviours
education, Life chances (i.e. crime)
gender, race
Chapter 16: Education
Definitions:
 Education: the social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills & cultural values
within a formally organized structure
o As a social institution education imparts values, beliefs and knowledge essential to the social reproduction of
individual personalities and entire cultures
 Cultural transmission: process by which children and recent immigrants become acquainted w the dominant cultural
beliefs, values, norms and accumulated knowledge of a society
o Occurs through formal and informal education
o Informal: learning that occurs in a spontaneous, unplanned way (storytelling, ritual ceremonies)
 Informal education in preliterate societies
 No written language, characterized by basic technology and simple division of labour:
SUBSISTENCE/SURVIVAL SOCIETIES
o Formal: learning that takes place within an academic setting w/ planned instructional processes and teachers
who convey specific knowledge, skills & thinking processes to students
 Formal education in pre-industrial societies
 Reserved for the privileged, like philosophers
 Renaissance shifted focus of education from human depravity to importance of developing
well-rounded and liberally educated people
 Industrial Rev. calls for all workers to have basic reading/writing/math skills
 Formal education in post-industrial societies
 Ryerson: call for free education for both rich and poor
 Mass education: providing free, public schooling for wide segments of a nation‟s population
o Contemporary education in Japan
 Peak of education (when made public) during Meiji period of industrialization
 Today, education viewed as key to Japan‟s economic success
 Emphasizes conformity, nationalism and obligation to family
 Cram schools (jukus) begin at age 3
 Kids determine future by middle school
 Few women; men suffer health-wise due to stress
Sociological perspectives on education
 Functionalists: education contributes to maintenance of society; provides opportunities for social mobility
o Education drives mobility
 High levels of education alone are sufficient enough to get you into upper class
 Only people w/ low level of education get high social positions when they move up with time
o Durkheim: importance of moral education and shared values  Groups needs > individual aspirations
o 1994 Royal Commissions 3 purposes of schooling: (1) high levels of literacy; (2) appreciation of learning; (3)
become responsible and moral citizens
o Manifest functions of schooling (open, intended goals)
 (1) Socialization; (2) Transmission of culture; (3) Social control; (4) Social placement; (5)
Innovation and change
o Latent functions of schooling (hidden, unstated goals)
 (1) Restricting some activities; (2) Matchmaking/social networking; (3) Creation of a generation gap
 Conflict: education perpetuates social inequality & benefits the dominant class at the expense of all others
o Bordieau: cultural capital (social assets that include values, beliefs, attitudes and competencies in language
and culture)
 Upper-class endows their kids with more cultural capital than the working class; those kids succeed
more in rigid curriculums
o Tracking: the assignment of students to specific courses and education programs based on their test scores,
previous grades or both
o Hidden curriculum: the transmission of cultural values and attitudes, such as conformity or obedience to
authority, through implied demands found in rules, regulations and routines of school
 Credentialism: process of social selection in which class advantage and social status are linked to the
possession of academic qualifications
 Feminists: gender bias and stereotyping hinder women from attaining equal education
o Segregation in classroom and activities, gender roles and expectations, few girls pictured in textbooks
o Changes in Parliament in 1970 narrowed gender gap (guidelines to abolish sexism in classroom)
o Still unequal pay, but more women enrolled in university now than men
 Symbolic interactionists: focus on classroom dynamics and effects of self-concept on grades and aspirations
o Labelling: process whereby a person is identified by others as possessing a specific characteristic or
exhibiting a certain pattern of behaviour
 Leads to self-fulfilling prophecies for students
 When a parent expects a child to end up attaining a certain level of education, the child is
most likely to attain said level
 Jacobson and Rosenthal‟s IQ testing experiment: random kids selected; researchers tell
teachers they have higher IQ; teachers teach said kids differently; said kids excel more than
others
 Rist: Harlem study – teachers distinguished kids in working/upper class based on
appearance; labelled upper class kids as smart and lower class kids as poor workers
 Jane Elliot‟s “blue eyes, brown eyes” test
 Herrstein and Murray: IQ is racially determined
o Flaws: biased stats that don‟t look at background, used Armed Forces Qualifications
that depend on how much schooling you have
 Cultural deprivation theory
o Bernstein: Social classes differ in their linguistic codes; schools use middle class linguistic codes, so those
w/o it are at a disadvantage
 Linguistic codes are learned in the family
 Working class: more direct, immediate, relies on authority to obtain compliance
 Middle class: rational explanation to obtain compliance
 Resistance theory
o Willis: class-based inequality in educational attainment stems not from the working class‟ inability to
perform, but from their unwillingness to perform in school
o Working class children‟s counterculture rejects the school‟s achievement ideology – they use any means
possible to display their open opposition to the school; they are antagonistic to authority
 Know their chances of upward mobility are remote
o Value manual labour, viewed as “masculine
Current issues in education
 Canada x have a federal education system
 Inequality in public vs. private schools – conflict and competition for financial resources
 Dropping out – 10% leave HS under 24 y/o
 Academic standards: not high enough o Functional illiteracy: inability to read/write @ the skill level necessary for carrying out everyday tasks
 Equalizing opportunities for students w/ disabilities
 Cost of post-secondary education
Chapter 11: Sex and gender
Definitions
 Sex: biological and anatomical differences between males and females
o Primary sex characteristics: genitalia used in reproductive process (distinguishes infants)
o Secondary sex characteristics: physical traits, other than reproductive organs, that identify an individual‟s sex
(developed at puberty)
o Hermaphrodites: individuals in whom sexual differentiation is ambiguous/incomplete caused be hormone
imbalances before birth
o Transexual: individuals born w/ the born of wrong sex
o Transvestite: male who lives as a female (or vice-versa) but x alter genitalia
 Closest approximation to third sex in Western culture
 David Reimer case: baby boy born  circumcision goes wrong  try to socialize him as female  failed (Dr. John
Money)
 Sexual orientation: an individual‟s preference for emotional-sexual relationships with members of the opposite sex
(heterosexuality); same sex (homosexuality); or both (bisexuality)
o Criteria for classifying gay/bi people: (1) sexual attraction to persons of one‟s own gender; (2) sexual
involvement with one or more people of same gender; (3) self-identification as gay/lesbian/bi
o Esterberg: some lesbians view selves as gay from birth; others say it shifted with social environment
o Savin Williams: at young age, gay men could tell they were different and wanted to be around more men
o Homophobia: extreme prejudice directed at LGBT
 Gender: culturally and socially constructed differences btwn females and males found in meanings, beliefs, practices
associated w/ “femininity” and “masculinity”
o Gender role: attitudes, behaviour and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex and are
learned through the socialization process
o Gender identity: persona‟s perception of the self as female or male; typically developed btwn 18 mos and 3
yrs old
o Body consciousness: how a peson perceives and feels about his/her body; includes an awareness of social
conditions in society that contribute to this self-knowledge
o Gendered institutions determine the roles of male and female in society
 They are reinforced by a gender belief system that includes all ideas/beliefs regarding masculine and
feminine attributes deemed to be valid in society; legitimated by religion, science, law, etc.
 Sexism: subordination of one sex, usually female, based on the assumed superiority o the other sex
o When directed @ women, there are 3 components: (1) negative attitudes towards women; (2) stereotypical
beliefs that reinforce/complement/justify prejudice; (3) discrimination
o Patriarchy: a hierarchal system of social organization in which cultural, political and economical structures
are controlled by men
o Matriarchy: “ …by women
 Historical and contemporary perspectives
o Pre-industrial societies: men hunt, women gather
 Equitable relationship: both contribute equally to getting means for survival
o Agrarian societies: institutionalization of gender inequality and male dominance
o Industrial societies: men as “breadwinners” and women as “homemakers” (“cult of domesticity”)
o Post-industrial societies: move towards greater equality with more women working
 Gender and socialization
o Preference of boys over girls (i.e. China, India)
o Parents‟ role
 Parents pass on their beliefs about gender to child and influence his/her gender development
 Toy selection!
o Peers‟ role
 Focus n being masculine (boys) and feminine (girls)
 Holland and Eisenhart: uni women mainly concerned with attractiveness to men (“sexual auction
blocks”) o School‟s role (a gendered institution)
 Gender bias: showing favourtism towards one gender over the other
 Teacher-student interactions
 Classroom divisions between boys and girls reinforces segregation
o Mass media‟s role
 Men outnumber women in TV characters
 Stereotypes reinforced
 Cortese: women in ads are typically young, beautiful and seductive
 Gendered division of work
o 3 factors in determining gendered division of labour: (1) type of subsistence base; (2) the supply and demand
for labour; (3) extent to which women‟s child-rearing activities are compatible with certain types of work
o In industrialized countries, jobs are segregated by gender and race
 Labour-market segmentation results in women having separate and unequal jobs
o Wage gap
 Earnings ratio: calculated by women‟s/men‟s
 Widened by marital status
o Pay equity attempts to raise the value of work traditionally performed by women; employable equity
strategies attempt to move women into higher paying jobs traditionally held by men
o Women typically do the “double shift” / “double day” – housework and paid labour
o “Sandwich generation”: women caught btwn needs of young children and their elderly
Sociological perspectives on gender
 Functionalists: division of labour by gender ensures stability
o Parsons: men perform instrumental tasks (economic support, decision-making); women perform expressive
tasks (emotional support)
 Neoclassical economic: gender inequality in the labour market results from women‟s diminished human capital
o Human capital is acquired by education and job training – return of investment (wages) vs. cost (training)
 Conflict: gendered division of labour at home and work is the result of male control of women and resources
 Feminist
o Liberal: women‟s equality = equality of opportunity; removing laws that differentiate people by gender
o Radical: abolishing patriarchy = gender equality
o Socialist: eliminate capitalism, establish socialism for gender equality
o Multicultural: class, race and gender simultaneously oppress a woman
o Post-modernist: “male” and “female” are malleable; gender is modified in everyday interactions
 Symbolic interactionst: “doing gender” – we perpetrate gender roles in our everyday tasks and interactions
Chapter 10: Ethnic relations and race
Definitions:
 Race: category of people who have been singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis of real or alleged
physical characteristics such as skin colour, hair texture, eye shape or other subjectively selected attributes
o A SOCIALLY-CONSTRUCTED REALITY
o World is divided into 3 categories by biologists: (1) Caucasian (fair-skinned, fine hair); (2) negroid (black,
thick hair); (3) mongoloid (yellow/brown, eyes are slanted)
 Ethnic group: collection of people distinguished (By themselves or others) primarily on the basis of cultural or
nationality characteristics
o Characteristics of an ethnic group: (1) unique cultural traits; (2) sense of community; (3) feeling of
ethnocentrism; (4) ascribed membership at birth; (5) territoriality
 Race is based on PHYSICAL characteristics. Ethnic groups are based on CULTURAL features.
 Porter: Canada as a “vertical mosaic”: degrees of ethnic stratification, w some et